Held in Trust · Holmes LA

This radio drama uses AI-generated writing, voices, music, sound effects and artwork. All spoken performances in this edition use ElevenLabs V4.

In Los Angeles, a bank swears it never sent the statement that woke a widow when it came over her fax at midnight. At the end of the week she must sign for a new building, her money sits with a financier, and she is waiting in her car at the foot of Sherlock Holmes's steps. Who faxed her that statement?

🎧 Full episode · full-cast radio drama, 26 min. Holmes LA: a modern Sherlock Holmes audio drama set in Los Angeles, performed by a full cast.
Hörspiel · audiokniha · rozhlasová hra (English audio, English captions)

Listen as a podcast, with full transcripts: https://mono-noir.transistor.fm/

Stories, transcripts and the schedule: https://matezz.com

🎭 Directed Edition — every role cast for this story and every line performed with full voice direction.

Los Angeles, May 2013. The rain has finally quit the hills above Echo Park, the converted craftsman house smells of wet cedar and pork, and Dr. Watson, paid in carnitas for stitching a taco-truck cook, watches Holmes read the tinfoil like a treaty and work out where the cook parks. Then the phone buzzes. It is Mrs. Levian, a widow, sitting in her car at the bottom of their steps; she has not called her lawyer. A bank swears it never sent the page that woke her at midnight, and at the end of the week she signs for a new building. Holmes says banks lose their own paperwork every day and a widow fighting one needs a lawyer, not him; Watson points out that Holmes has crossed town for less, last month for a parakeet, and Holmes asks for his coat. At nine the next morning Mrs. Levian leads them past a bookkeeper named Cyrus, hunched over a ledger, into the offices of Mr. Kashani, who tells her she will have her money. At her glass house, with her late husband smiling down from every wall, she tells them what rides on it: several families have put sixteen million dollars with a man they all trust, and she is the one who vouched for him. Down the hall a beige machine hums on her husband's desk. Before it is over Holmes and Watson will also hear from Babette, the bank's branch manager, and from Lieutenant Fujimoto of homicide, who is only there as a favor. Where did a statement come from that its own bank never sent?

From the series Holmes LA: a real Los Angeles crime reimagined as a modern Sherlock Holmes radio mystery, performed by a full multi-voice AI cast with an original score and sound design.

Loosely inspired by a real Los Angeles case of the 2010s. All names, characters, dialogue and events are fictional; the words, actions, motives and private lives of every character — including a financier, his clients and their families, a widow, the staff of his office and of a bank, the police and other investigators, and anyone suspected or accused of the crime — are invented for drama, and so is the solution of the mystery. Where a real city, district, street, bank or public body is mentioned, its part in this story is invented; the offices, the bank branch and the places named in it are invented too. This is a work of fiction, not a factual account of any real person or institution. No real person is portrayed, and no real individual, company or organisation is accused of any act shown here.

Setting: Los Angeles — May 2013.

Writer v2.7 — the studio's newest writing process: the plot is planned and checked by an AI story editor, then each act is drafted with the whole story in view and edited before a word is voiced — and then cast and performed with our new casting and voice direction.

Chapters:
0:00 The Rain Quits the Hills, Holmes Reads the Tinfoil
2:36 Nine the Next Morning, Offices High Above the Boulevard
4:11 A Glass House, Her Late Husband Smiling From Every Wall
5:25 Down the Hall, a Beige Machine Humming on the Desk
6:35 Parked Across From the Bank Before Noon
8:01 A Glass Corner Office, a Bowl of Mints, a Cooling Smile
9:38 Waiting by a Car in the Garage a Little After Six
10:50 A Lieutenant on the Porch With a Cup of Coffee
12:19 Ten the Next Morning, Six in the Bookkeeping Room
14:03 A Bare Desk Early the Following Day
15:15 The Manager Gives Up His Chair
16:36 Downtown, Mrs. Levian Holding the Page in Both Hands
17:34 A Dark House With One Lit Window
19:31 Engine Off at the Curb Until the Light Goes Out
20:44 Noon, Back in the Office, the Widow by the Desk
23:02 Floor Wax and Burnt Coffee Downtown
24:57 The Last Page of the Case Log at the Kitchen Table

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